HIS ‘GAME’ IS OVER
Rodney Alcala, who killed 7 across country, dies at 77
Rodney Alcala, a convicted serial murderer dubbed “The Dating Game Killer” because he appeared on the once-popular game show, died of natural causes Saturday at 77.
Alcala died in a hospital in California where he was on Death Row for strangling four women and a 12-year-old girl in the Golden State in the 1970s.
He also confessed to murdering two Manhattan women, including a flight attendant who was raped and strangled in her Upper East Side apartment in 1971 and an heiress whose body was found dumped in Westchester County in 1977.
Investigators suspect Alcala of other killings in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Seattle, New Hampshire and Arizona.
Alcala reportedly possessed a genius-level IQ and was said to have enticed some victims with his photography skills.
The pony-tailed killer used fake names like John Berger and landed gigs at artsy summer camps, shooting weddings and at the Los Angeles Times, where he worked as typesetter, CBS News reported. His professors at UCLA were flabbergasted when news of his serial killer double life surfaced.
Alcala appeared on a 1978 episode of “The Dating Game,” which turned out to be at the height of his killing spree.
He beat out other contestants to win the date. But the woman who picked him said she never followed through because he seemed creepy.
DNA evidence eventually tied several of the killings to Alcala.
He reportedly decided to plead guilty to the Manhattan murders because authorities would not guarantee him access to a personal laptop and law library to gather evidence to mount his own defense.